Israeli stocks at records after Treasury revises growth view

RobertDaniel

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Israel stocks traded at records after the Finance Ministry raised its forecast for economic growth and lowered its projection for the cost of the summer war with the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's benchmark TA-25 index rose 0.64% to 919.57, exceeding its record 913.76 set Sunday. The TA-100 is up 0.64% at 930.03, ahead of its record 925.98, set on Nov. 6. The Tel-Tech 15 index of top technology issues is off 0.09% at 375.08. It topped out at 482.78 on Jan. 20, 2004. The most-active issue is Bank Hapoalim, trading up 1.9%. "Investors are buoyed by the optimistic growth forecasts published by the Treasury," said Richard Gussow, senior analyst at Excellence Nessuah in Ramat Gan. The ministry sees 2006 growth of 4.6%, up from 4.3%, with the war knocking 0.7 percentage point off the figure instead of the 1 point it had seen previously.

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